Direito fundamental à liberdade em foco: uma análise de conteúdo da decisão do Supremo Tribunal Federal sobre a educação domiciliar

Abstract

The academic work in question investigated the treatment given by the Brazilian State, through the Federal Supreme Court (STF), to homeschooling, a controversial topic that generates debates both in the academic and political circles. The general objective was to examine how homeschooling is addressed in the Brazilian legal field. The focus was to expose the current panorama of homeschooling in Brazil, investigate the philosophical and legal construction of the right to freedom, and analyze how the STF dealt with the issue in the case of Extraordinary Appeal (RE) 888.815. The method used was content analysis, which consisted of a detailed textual analysis of the judgment of RE 888.815, generating quantitative and qualitative data from the text. The objective was to examine how the fundamental right to freedom was addressed by the STF, the highest constitutional judicial body in Brazil. The research hypotheses suggested that, due to the continuity and increase of homeschooling even after the unfavorable decision of the STF, the fundamental right to freedom addressed by the court is not compatible with the right to freedom established in the Constitution, which resulted in the persistence of the practice of homeschooling. In this sense, the results did not confirm the hypothesis, since the STF did not even analyze the fundamental right to freedom in its decision, even though the petitioner in RE 888.815 raised this right as a guide for its legal foundations. Therefore, there were no ways to ascertain whether the fundamental right to freedom addressed by the STF in the paradigmatic decision was compatible with this right provided for in the Brazilian Constitution. Thus, it was demonstrated that there is still a latent need for legal discussion on the subject in view of the insufficient decision-making given to homeschooling.